Playoff Preview: Legion action turns serious

Perk Valley Raiders pitcher Liam Grande, a fifteen-year-old from Perkiomen Valley High School, pitched a no-hitter in a 2-1 victory over the Lafayette Auto Patriots in a GNALBL league game.
Rick Kauffman/Times Herald Staff

It’s win or go home … with a freebie. Double elimination is the name of the game for the Greater Norristown Area Legion Baseball League playoffs beginning on Friday. At the very top is JP Mascaro (15-3) who will enjoy the first night off while the other six seeds get a head start.

The forthcoming analysis will attempt to discern the various outcomes of the first few rounds, but other than the initial games nothing is set in stone. The beauty of baseball has always been in the players’ ability to keep at it and not give up, and despite a season-long of highs and lows for many teams, they’re still all here. All it takes is a few performances to get the ball rolling and make waves.

Last year’s champion, JP Mascaro, who has won nine of the last 10 GNALBL titles, worked out of the losers’ bracket and overcame Whitpain, the previous year’s champion, in two title games to take the crown. Over the course of five games over five days, these seven teams will throw their aces in and stack the hitters up for the chance to become the GNALBL representatives in the PA Region 3 Tournament. But first, baseball.

Game 1 — (5) Lafayette Auto Patriots @ (4) Presidential Caterers

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The middling seeds are always the closest matchups, but the rivalry between these two goes deeper than that. Just this past Monday the Patriots (8-10) eked out a one-run win against PC, 3-2. Starting pitcher Michael Whalon went fours innings with one earned, while PC’s ace Evan Grimes went the distance but his team fell short during a rally in the top of the seventh.

PC (8-9-1) went and shut out the three-seeded Perk Valley Raiders to move into fourth place in the league the following evening. While both teams sit with eight wins, PC owns the advantage thanks to a tie against Mt. Carmel from a rained-out game at Norristown Area High School in late-June.

Lafayette Auto was 2-1 over PC during the regular season, a win most recently and a split earlier in the season. Grimes got the win earlier in the season, going seven innings, allowing one earned run and fanning three. The next game, Whalon was again the victor — a five-hit shutout with 12 Ks.

Ben Raeder, another young player from Lafayette Auto, has been the standout star of the pitching squad. He is 2-2 in five starts with a 1.44 ERA and in 34.0 innings has fanned 21 and walked 10.

Thus far each team has been victorious on their home turf, which in this instance bodes well for PC. Let’s see if their hard-fought victory over PV for home-field was well worth it. The winner will face JP Mascaro on Saturday.

Game 2 — (6) Whitpain @ (3) Perk Valley

Perk Valley’s lineup of mostly young players were unfazed by an early-season coaching change, which allowed Steve Banion to step in and lead the Raiders to a 9-9 record and a three seed in the GNALBL. Starting off getting swept by JP Mascaro, PV won four straight over Valley Forge and Mt. Carmel.

Twice this season, PV forced the forfeit of two opponents — a 9-0 win over Presidential Caterers and a 9-0 win over Whitpain — a feat only the Raiders enjoyed in the GNALBL.

Pitcher Liam Grande (2-2) threw a no-hitter against Lafayette Auto in mid-June and has been their go-to pitcher. Grande has struck out 34 batters and walked 18 with an ERA of 1.73.

Whitpain, meanwhile, has had their share of pain during the regular season. Unable to string together more than a single win at a time, Whitpain enters the playoffs on a two-game losing streak. Pitcher Will Ligus (2-2 in five starts) has put in the most work by far compared to the rest of the squad. In 39.1 innings, he has 26 Ks and 20 walks. William McFarland has more impressive numbers, but a much smaller sample size (24.0 innings pitched, 20 Ks, 11 BB).

The winner of this game will face the victor of the Valley Forge/Mt. Carmel matchup on Saturday.

Game 3 — (7) Valley Forge @ (2) Mt. Carmel

Mt. Carmel is sure they’re the best team in the league. In their final series of the season against JP Mascaro the Mounties took two of the three. In the one that escaped them they could have put them in position to take the top spot in the GNALBL on the final day of the season, pending an addition loss from Mascaro, but alas the stars did not align in such a way. Rather, Mt. Carmel seized the top seed and will face the four-win Generals.

The Mounties were 4-3 to start the season, but really put solid games together behind strong pitching down the stretch, winning eight of ten to finish. On the mound, Randy Frankenfield and youngster Zach Metz led the pack with sub-2.00 ERAs and combined for seven of the teams twelve wins. Frankfield, a favorite for pitcher of the year, had a 0.45 ERA in 31.0 innings of work, fanning 48 while only walking 13.

Valley Forge relied heavily on Upper Merion’s Mike Greenwood this season, who on the mound was their only two-game winner and led the team in RBIs with five.

Like the Train, the Generals were unable to piece together more than one win at a time and suffered through multiple stretches of five-plus losses during the course of the season.

Just as the winner will play the winner of the Whitpain/Perk Valley game, the loser will matchup against the loser on Saturday.

Game 4 — (5)Lafayette Auto/(4)Presidential Caterers @ (1) JP Mascaro

JP Mascaro for the last decade has been the powerhouse of the GNALBL and this season was no different. This season they were perfect through 10 straight games before falling to Whitpain 4-2. However, they lost two of three to second-place Mt. Carmel in the final series of the season. But against both their possible opponents in the second round of play, Mascaro swept them convincingly — scoring twelve more runs against PC and 13 more than Lafayette Auto.